Investors are adjacent to fighting the Fed. They are shorting the HYG even though the Fed is buying some junk bonds. They are doing that probably because they are bearish on the junk bonds the Fed isn’t buying.

with shorts no longer allowed to speculate in IG debt or anything less risky only a few things remain subject to the whims of markets: junk bonds and stocks. After the epic squeeze in LQD, the short base on both HY ETFs and the SPY remains elevated.